Kleiza pours in 41 as Nuggets top Jazz

DENVER (Ticker) - The Denver Nuggets were perfectly happy with
not being led in scoring by one of their two superstars.

Linas Kleiza scored a career-high 41 points and Allen Iverson
added 28 and dished out nine assists as the Nuggets defeated the
Utah Jazz, 120-109, on Thursday night at the Pepsi Center.

Marcus Camby had eight points and collected 24 rebounds for
Denver, marking his eighth game with 20 or more rebounds this
season.

Carmelo Anthony and Iverson had led the Nuggets in scoring in
each of the team's previous 37 games this season before Kleiza,
who scored 20 of his points in the second quarter, ended that
streak.

The 22-year-old Lithuanian, who had gone over 20 points just
twice this season, shot 13-of-21 from the floor and 4-of-8 from
the arc while grabbing nine rebounds in a season-high 42
minutes.

"I was definitely in the zone tonight," Kleiza said. "I was
able to leak out tonight with a guy like Marcus Camby under the
basket who gets every rebound, so that made a difference.
Everybody did a great job of getting me the ball."

"No way could I have predicted 41 points," Nuggets coach George
Karl said. "I wish everyone ran the way Linas Kleiza runs."

Deron Williams scored 23 and dished out 12 assists for the Jazz,
who had a four-game winning streak snapped. Carlos Boozer
added 18 and Mehmet Okur chipped in with 16.

"We have got to share the ball and we cannot take the first
shot," Okur said. "Hopefully we learned our lesson from this
game."

The Northwest Division rivals, who met for the first of four
times this season, played a closely contested first half that
featured 10 ties, five lead changes and a 61-59 edge for Denver
at the break.

Newly acquired sharpshooter Kyle Korver helped Utah stay close
in the first half, scoring all 16 of his points during the first
24 minutes, including four 3-pointers.

Denver, which snapped a two-game losing streak, used an
impressive third quarter to extend its lead to 98-88. The
Nuggets shot 13-for-23 (57 percent) and Anthony scored 14 of his
23 during the period.

"We did a good job in the first half, but in the second half
they got away from us a little bit," Boozer said. "(Kleiza) got
a lot of his stuff on the fast breaks and we didn't do a good
job getting back on our transition defense."

Denver, which moved into a tie with Portland for first place in
the Northwest Division, opened the fourth quarter with an 8-1
surge and the Jazz never got any closer than the final margin
the rest of the way.

"I give Denver credit," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "They took
us out of all the stuff that we like to do. They were better
than we were by far."